Posts

I am a fan of hot temperatures and sunny climates. This may
sound strange coming from someone who lives in a wet and grey part of the UK (Nottingham). However, hot weather is
one of the main reasons I love researching tropical lakes, and a trait I share
with the January 2017 ‘Diatom of the Month’. I would like to introduce you to
my favourite diatom: Amphora
coffeaeformis (Fig. 1) [now renamed Halamphora
coffeaeformis]
– a salt-tolerant species, indicating a shallow, slightly saline environment
(Gasse, 1986).

Fig.
1. A
specimen of Amphora coffeaeformis found
in the sediments of Lake Nyamogusingiri, Uganda (photo: K. Mills). So, how did I come to ‘discover’ this diatom, and how did
it come to be my favourite? My story starts as a new Ph.D. student at
Loughborough University in 2005. I was working with Dr David Ryves on a project focussed on the
Ugandan Crater Lakes, where I would use a palaeolimnological approach to infer past climate and
environmental changes that took pl…